Block or Buy: My Email and SMS Philosophy for a 9-Figure Brand

Block or Buy: The Philosophy That Built Every Brand I Own

People will tell you that you can't communicate too much, that people are going to get upset, that you'll invade their privacy, that you'll become a spam machine. I disagree. My email and text messaging philosophy is what I call the block or buy philosophy, and it's what built my success and the success of every single brand I've created for many, many years.

Here's what it means. I believe in my products so much that I know I have something to share. I know it's going to change lives. So I'm going to communicate consistently and obsessively via email, via text, and via social media until one of two things happens: they block me because they're sick of it, or they buy from me. You can escape by blocking me or by buying from me. Whether you feel I'm communicating too much does not matter. The only thing that matters is: are you going to block me or are you going to buy from me?

One giant caveat. If you start spamming people, only selling with zero value in those lines, quite literally every single person on that list will unsubscribe. Block or buy only works when value is at the center of it.

Better Than a Casino in Vegas

Let's talk economics. Emails are cheap: on average around a tenth of a cent per email, depending on the platform. Text messages cost more, around a penny each, and when you get to the level NaturalSlim is at, sending millions of text messages, we bring it down to about half a cent. Sounds expensive next to email until you look at the return.

One campaign of ours spent $113,000, sent 8.3 million text messages, and produced $2.4 million in revenue. For every dollar I put into that text message campaign, I got $20 back. Isn't that better than a casino in Vegas? You're hitting the jackpot every single time. That is printing money, by definition. Another one: over half a million dollars made from $1,700 spent, a 343x return. For every dollar, we got $343 back.

You are never going to see those numbers on a social media campaign. You only see them on your own assets: your owned audience, your text list, your email list. A social following only becomes a real asset once those people join your list and you communicate with them routinely. This year alone, my text message list has done $4.2 million so far. Nothing gets close to a phone number list. That is your gold mine.

Pick Two Platforms, Not One

There are plenty of email platforms out there: Mailchimp, ConvertKit, AWeber, Constant Contact, GetResponse, Campaign Monitor, ActiveCampaign, HubSpot. On NaturalSlim we use Klaviyo, and no, I'm not affiliated with any of these. Klaviyo is built for e-commerce: it gives you revenue per email sent, connects to your products and your store. Choose whichever works for you.

But here's what I realized over the years: the email platforms, the ESPs, are specialized in email. Even though they let you send text messages, they're not specialized in text. So my recommendation is to find an ESP for email, find a dedicated SMS platform for text, and combine them both. For years I used Simple Texting, and it is exactly what the name says: simple. Today we run Klaviyo for email and Postscript for text, and they talk to each other constantly. When somebody activates on email, we see it on text and communicate properly across both.

Email Best Practices That Actually Move the Needle

Segmentation first. When somebody gives you their email, know exactly where they came from, and survey them as best you can so you understand how to serve them better. Then personalization: use their name, recommend products based on browsing history. Amazon does this better than anybody, sending dynamic, individual-level emails based on what you're searching for.

Automation matters, starting with the welcome series. When somebody joins my list, I don't just plug them into the rest of the list. I introduce them to my world: who I am, my purpose and mission, how I've helped people, what resources I can share. From there: compelling subject lines, because the better your open rates, the more your provider keeps you out of the promotional inbox. And content variety, because you cannot just blast people. Plug your superpower, your ability to help somebody with your products and services, into every campaign. The more value you give, the more your promotional emails get opened.

Then the fundamentals: clear calls to action (what exactly do you want them to do?), mobile optimization (emails get opened 80 to 90 percent on mobile, so desktop is a secondary afterthought), and constant A/B testing on subject lines, open rates, and images. This is not something you build and back away from. You continuously observe, adjust, optimize, and correct.

And compliance. GDPR in Europe, spam regulations in the USA. Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Constant Contact, none of them will risk their reputation for you. Spam people left and right and they will ban you, and starting over on a new platform is painful because it takes time to season that relationship. Somebody wants to opt out? Let them opt out. Block or buy still respects the block.

SMS: Short, Personal, Urgent

On text, start with a clear opt-in. Make it explicit that you're opting people into your marketing. Then keep it short: you've got 160 characters. Here's a hot tip. Take your entire message, drop it into ChatGPT, and say: give me 160-character variations of this message. It does an incredible job. It's the era of AI. Might as well use it.

Give your text list exclusive offers, first dibs on promotions, special access, new content. These people are the most valuable list you have, so make it about them. The ones who opted out are missing out. Watch your timing: don't blast people at 6 a.m. or 11 at night. And use urgency and scarcity. People act much faster when they know an offer expires in a few hours or 48 hours.

Unsubscribe rates on text will be high because text marketing is invasive, and people will hit stop. Don't worry about it. Retarget those unsubscribers on Facebook and Instagram ads and keep them engaged. Unsubscribing does not mean they won't buy. I cannot begin to tell you how many people have kept buying from me over and over despite unsubscribing many times along the journey. In that moment, they just didn't want the pressure.

How Much Is Too Much? Here's My Weekly Calendar

People ask me this constantly: how much communication is too much? My standard: at least one email per day. Value emails mixed in with promotions, or value emails that end with a promotion, but always make giving value away central. Give people information that makes their lives better for free, without expecting anything in return, and you will find yourself growing. On text: three to five messages a week. You don't have to hit the list every day, but three to five times a week is a must.

Here's an aggressive e-commerce week combining both. Monday: a newsletter with new launches and personalized recommendations, plus a welcome text to new subscribers with a discount code. Tuesday: a promotional email with a limited-time offer, always with value woven in. Wednesday: educational content on email, and a midweek text with urgency, this offer is about to expire. Thursday: abandoned cart email with a special discount code, and honestly those should run on automatic every single day. Friday: weekend flash sale with a countdown timer, plus a text reminder linking to the store. Saturday: a testimonial or case study to build trust, with a small call to action to book a call with your team, plus a flash sale alert or restock text. Sunday: last-chance reminder for the weekend sale.

You see how email and text work together? This has to be structured. Create a promotional calendar that makes clear, beyond your welcome campaign, exactly what you're allowed to do as a standard on both platforms. Then communicate obsessively. They'll block you, or they'll buy from you. In my world, there is no other way out.